What's in a name?

I have a name! After three years, Noah has finally decided to give me a name. Up until now, he's just always assumed I've been listening whenever he decided to talk and never felt the need to use "Mommy," or "Mama," or anything. II can't really blame him, since I kind of do always listen whenever he opens his little mouth, whether I want to or not. Occasionally he'd use a "Maw-ee," if asked what my name was but never when he was trying to get my attention. This week, he's decided on "Momom." I think it started when William started saying "Ma Ma." Nothing like a little brother for some motivation, right? Now when he's talking to me, he'll start with "Momom, help with gate?" etc. I even get a "Thank you, Momom," when I give him something. Watch, in a week I'll be posting something about how I'm sick of hearing "Momom! Momom! Momom!" all the time. :)

William's Walking!

A Downer.

Yesterday was the 4th anniversary of the day we lost our first baby. I was ten weeks along or so, and we were in Wichita, KS for a job interview. I think I'd be perfectly fine if I never had to set foot in Wichita again. I still think often about what our baby would have been like. For some reason, I've always thought it was a girl. That might be part of the reason I have a hard time thinking of naming a future baby girl the same name we had picked out for if our first if it were a girll. Logically, that doesn't make sense, but I guess I'm not always as logical as I think I am.

The feeling I remember the most was emptiness....and the feeling of not knowing. There's very little I hate more than not knowing whats going to happen. It had taken us a long time to get pregnant the first time, and I worried that even if I were able to get pregnant again, that I would be unable to sustain a pregnancy. Three months later we found out that we were pregnant with Noah. That was a very long first trimester.

At about 12 weeks, just as I was starting to think everything would be okay, we found out that Noah was a twin, but the other baby had gotten stuck over by my ovary (an ectopic pregnancy) and had died at about 6 weeks old. The doctors told us that they'd keep a careful eye on it with ultrasounds, but there was a chance that I'd have to have surgery to remove it, but if it were before Noah was 18 weeks, I might lose him too. Thankfully everything went as well as it possibly could have, and my body absorbed the other embryo over time, and I didn't need the surgery.

I often wonder what it would be like to have two little three-year-olds running around. What would Noah's twin have been like? Would they have been similar, or as opposite as Noah and William are?

When Noah turned one we started trying for baby number 2. That time it took 5 months. 5 really long months. After finding out I was pregnant for the 3rd time it was hard to get very excited about it. I remember going to the doctor the first time with William and having her ask me if I was excited. I told her, "If everything is going well, then yes, I'll be excited." She looked a little confused, but understood after she took my medical history. I feel guilty about the lack of excitement, but it's just not as easy to get excited about new pregnancies after what we've had to go through.

It's days like yesterday that I look at the two boys we have now and I'm particularly thankful for them. We spent what seems like a long time thinking we might not ever have them, that I'm so glad that they're there.

Happy Noah Day!

Tonight I sang Old MacDonald so many times I lost count, and ran out of animals. Well, at least animals that I knew what sound they make which is pretty important in the world of Old MacDonald. I got so desperate that we were singing about Old MacDonald having a mommy on his farm. Who knows...maybe he did? Either way, the mommy says "Love you."

Since my last post, Noah has turned the big 3! We had lots of fun on "Noah Day." He got all sorts of fun stuff- light sabers, a slide, a new fort ('cause every little boy needs a fort), an easel and a tricycle, among other things. He's still workin' on figuring out the tricycle. Right now he sits on it, and William pushes him around, which is pretty cute. Especially when they both laugh. I love it when they both laugh. Noah Day was also Lovely Jan's birthday, so we had her come over that night for steak (at Noah's request) and "ice goop cake" (ice cream cake, also at Noah's request.) She even played light sabers with him.

Noah's 3 year physical was a few days after his birthday. I know, happy birthday! Bleh. Who wants to go to the dr. for their birthday? Anyways, Noah's slightly below average height, and a little skinny butt. Shocker.

William is getting a little braver in his walking attempts. Today I saw him purposely walk to something. In the past he's kinda let go and taken a couple of steps while he's been distracted by something else. He's only 10 months so he's got time to figure out this walking thing.

William has overcome his issues with food textures. At least, the textures he was having a problem with before. He used to gag on his oatmeal, but now he doesn't have a problem with it. The kid will eat anything. I made chili the other night, and he even wanted and liked that. Could it possibly be that I lucked out and got two good eaters? Wouldn't that be nice?!

This last weekend was my birthday so we took a trip up north of Sacramento to Apple Hill. It was William's first experience in the car for longer than a few minutes. Oh boy.... He didn't do so hot. Not terrible, but not good either. It was only a 3 hour tour (ha, I crack myself up) which makes me a little nervous about flying with him to GA around Christmas. Maybe he'll be better when I'm holding him? I sure hope so.

9 months and almost 3!

In honor of William's 9 month birthday (yesterday) a blog post! I didn't even realize it was his 9 month birthday until Great-Grammy reminded me. That's right, I'm Mother of the Year.

The last few days ever last one of the Brahm men have been sick with a cold/sore throat thing. Well, Bob the dog hasn't, or at least if he is, I don't know it. He seems happy enough to me.

This month....let's see....this month William has learned to recognize his name, and his brother's name, which has been useful since that kid gets in to everything. At least he stops what he's doing for a second when I say "William!." When he's asked where Noah is, he'll look around until he finds him, and then usually gets a big smile. It's fun having them like each other.

I almost always feed William in his room in the rocking chair because he's the world most easily distracted baby and there's not a whole lot in there for him to get distracted by. A few days ago I was feeding him, and Noah was out in the hallway talking. William heard him, sat straight up, and started talking back to Noah. They had a little conversation. I have no idea what they were saying, but there was some sort of happy back and forth going on there.

William's trying more and more to let go of whatever he's pulled himself up on and stand on his own- sometimes in the worst places. He had his very first bath today in the big bathtub, (he has been in the kitchen sink, but both boys desperately needed a bath so I decided we'd do a joint bath) and he tried to stand on his own in the bathtub. That kid's gonna give me a heart attack someday.

He's perfected going up and down the stair that goes into our now empty living room...bonus room...den, whatever.....and has fallen many times in the perfecting process. I'm pretty sure that kid is a super baby or something. He very rarely cries when he falls. He falls flat on his face, nothin'. He gets his fingers smashed by big brother in the toy box, nothin'. Rolls off the stair, nothin'. Tough kid.

I've decided that girls will either really like William, or be intimidated by him. He looks into people eyes forever and ever without breaking eye contact. So, either they'll feel special that someone wants to look in to their eyes like that, or they'll feel like he's reading their soul and be intimidated.

Noah will be turning 3 in just under a month. THREE!?! I think this is the first year that he'll understand what's going on when he has his birthday. Every time I mention that he's gonna have a birthday soon he starts singing the Blue's Clues birthday song and pretends to blow out candles. He's also asked for an icecream cake. Well, an "ice goop cake" were his actual words. :)

Our current endeavors are learning our ABC's, and counting to 10. Right now we're working on A, B, and C. He's learning to say them, what sound they make, and how to write them. "'A' says 'aaaaaaaahhhh,' like 'apple,' 'B' says 'buh,' like 'Bob,' and 'C' says 'ka' like 'cat.'" Problem is, that now he's walks around calling our dog, Bob, "buh. Bob." Oh well, at least he entertains me. :)

He's recently had a little bit of interest in potty training. We put on the big boy underwears, and he'll sit on the potty, but the problem is, that he tells me after he goes pee-pee and not when he needs to go pee-pee, so we have yet to be successful. At least he's trying though, right?

Our other problem in the potty area, is that he doesn't want to keep his diaper on. When he's supposed to be taking a nap, I'll go in to check on him, 'cause he's really bad at keeping quiet, and he'll have taken off his diaper. A few times we've sent him to his room to calm down and stop whining, and when we go to "have a talk" he's taken his diaper off. A few times he's peed his bed because of it. Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

Noah and his cats

Noah has always loved cats and dogs. More so cats, but I think that's because until recently, we had a cat but no dog. Noah has also always loved stuffed animals. For Christmas when he was one, I bought him a stuffed orange cat. Meet Orange Kitty.

This is not the authentic Orange Kitty. The real Orange Kitty is more orange and grey instead of orange and white, and is missing an eye. The real Orange Kitty looked like this at one time, a few years ago. For about a day. Orange Kitty, is the sacred bedtime stuffed animal. He has slept with this thing every single night and nap time since he got it.

About a year ago we went to a yard sale, and Noah managed to find Black Kitty crammed into some box marked "$ .25." The Yardsalees thought Noah was just SO cute, that they gave it to him for free, so Black Kitty came home with us and kept Orange Kitty company.

(Yes, we're very creative with our cat naming.)

Black Kitty, is not the favorite, but second favorite. Noah also sleeps every night with Black Kitty, but if he wants to choose a cat to play with during the day, Orange Kitty is the one that's always chosen. Black Kitty pretty much stays in Noah's bed.

Now for the reason I started this post to begin with. Noah also has a quilt I made him a few years ago that he also loves, and sleeps with every night. These three things, Orange Kitty, Black Kitty, and the quilt were getting pretty grungy, and I decided that today was the day to run everything through the washing machine. I had timed it so that I knew that the holy trinity would be clean and dry before nap time so that Noah wouldn't have to be without his favorite bedtime things when 1pm came, which is the boys' nap time. Sure enough, 12:50pm rolled around and I gave Noah his ten minute warning, and then went out to the drier to get all his stuff. I was impressed with how clean Orange Kitty came out....he was lookin' pretty rough. I gave Noah his cats and explained how they were clean now because Mommy gave them a bath. Then we talked about how when he gets a bath, he gets all clean too, just like the kitties.

I went to take care of William, and Noah went back to his room to play. Well, I thought Noah went back to his room to play. He was awful quiet, so I went back to check on him. He was at the end of the hallway, talking to his cats.....which he had put into our real cat's litter box to "go potty."

Blah! I explaining to him that only the real cat, Virginia (aka Miss Kitty), is allowed to go potty in there, and she gets angry when other cats go in there and use her potty. So, while trying not to laugh too hard, I took his two cats directly to the washing machine to get yet another "bath." Now, he's in his room where he's supposed to be taking a nap. Instead he is, for the first time ever in bed talking to his stuffed frog, and his grey cat, both of which, are not part of the bedtime brigade. Here's to hoping Noah takes his nap today...

Happy 8 Months, William!

Today is William's 8 month birthday! It's been a big month for him. He learned how to crawl, pull himself up, cruise, attempt to stand on his own, only to fail miserably, and, he got his first two teeth. He's also (finally) started to consistently sleep through the night. Well, sort of- He wakes up around 6am to eat and then usually gets up between 8 and 9am.

Noah has started to put two words together on his own, and is saying *gasp* FOUR syllables at a time. Oh, and counting. He's very in to counting. He used to be able to count to five, and then all of the sudden he started skipping over four. I don't know why, but we're workin' on it.

We've started a new thing around here with Noah. Every day he gets 30 minutes of Mommy Time, where I don't do anything except for pay attention to him. No multi-tasking, just paying attention to Noah. During Mommy Time, we do whatever he wants to do (within reason), except for watch TV. Today for Mommy Time, we attempted to make Silly Putty. Key word being, "attempted."

One of Noah's favorite things to do is to sit on the counter and help me make whatever I'm making. Especially if it's something he'll have fun with when it's done....or cookies.

What was supposed to be silly-putty-ish turned out to be silly, but not really putty-ish. It did however make an exploding bouncy ball, which might be even better. :) Noah spent the rest of Mommy Time throwing balls at me, that explode upon impact, which is apparently hilarious.

He just looks so grown-up in this last picture. On Saturday I called him "Baby Boy," and he looks at me and says "No."

"You don't want Mommy to call you 'Baby Boy?"

"No."

"Can I call you 'Little Boy?'"

"Yeah."

" Ok, Little Boy."

*runs off to play*

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to call William "Baby Boy" now. *tear*